Romance Reads and Reviews

Review: Crave by Janet Nissenson

Crave is the first novel I've read by Janet Nissenson. Although it's part of a series, I enjoyed it as a stand alone. I understand there is some back story I may have missed, but I think the author did a fine job in letting the reader what that back story was, and I never felt as though I was missing any vital information, so for me the story stood on its own.

I really love the cover of this novel, and I like that the woman on the front could easily be Tessa. Tessa was a sweet character who had had such a hard life, such a strange marriage, and yet she was so kind and sweet. It's no wonder that Ian fell for her really. And the two of them burned up the pages of this book! Ms. Nissenson definitely knows how to write erotic romance. The heat level of this book is certainly high, and always original too, which is a plus in my books.

This is a classic Cinderella story, with Tessa having had a hard life, and little money and then being swept off her feet and spoiled rotten by Ian. And he knows how to spoil a girl. It made Tessa uncomfortable, and to be honest, it made me a little uncomfortable as a reader. I wasn't sure how realistic it was for Tessa to simply accept the amount of spoiling Ian does, even if it gave Ian great joy in spoiling her in the ways that he did. Some of the choices Tessa makes to be with Ian, who is her boss after all, also gave me pause. It placed her in a potentially vulnerable and entirely dependent situation and I wasn't sure Tessa made the right decision even though I knew it would turn out, as a Cinderella story should, happily ever after. That said, it was easy to suspend belief with this novel as it's clear how in love Tessa and Ian were, and after all, the choices we make for love are not always logical.

A steaming novel that stood on it's own feet, Crave had my attention from beginning to end as I simply had to see how the Cinderella story would play out. There are a few characters that at times, made me wonder if the happiness of Tessa and Ian might not last, but I will say the climax of this novel took me by surprise and that ending was fairy tale.